Changes in UTA Plan

Well, I told you I would go over the changes UTA made is the great bus plan so here they are with comments:

I am going to do this in order they appear on the lovely UTA website.

Route 62: 6200 South. They discovered that buses will not be able to turn from 6235 South onto 1300 West Southbound so instead they will head north to 5400 South. I am sure that will please the people on 1300 West whose homes are close to the street, so they will probably scream bloody murder. Now call me crazy, but doesn't that mean that this route and the 5400 South route will duplicate 5400 South for a portion. The evils of it!!

Route 11: Route will basically parrallel existing Route 1 with the jog to 13th instead of staying on 11th between G and I Streets.

Route 6: This route will have evening/night service instead of route 3.

Route 3: Will service the VA Hospital but still looses service to the University of Utah.

Route 21: Will run north/south along 2100 East instead of Foothill Blvd that looses 15 min service for hourly service. This restores decent service along 2100 South which should have never been cut back to every 30-minutes but then again UTA planners are not held accountable from stupidity.

Route 213: Will use Highland/1100 East from Richmond & Highland to 9th South replaces a portion of old Route 8 (to be 220) which will run along 1300 East instead. Now if the people in scheduling will figure out if a bus ends at the University of Utah instead of going all the way to downtown it should arrive at TRAX at the U. a few minutes before a Downtown bound train, not at the same time (oh wait, we are talking UTA schedulers, forget it).

Route 220: As mentioned will use 1300 East north of Richmond/Highland to the U. In addition, Nicole from Where's My Bus, UTA? is hopefully jumping for joy because it will use 200 South from the U not S. Temple (S. Temple portion replaced by Route 209). Now if only we knew at what hours the bus was running since they have not addressed those issues yet (then again they could cut and no one will know!)

Route 223: Will run along 2700 South/1700 East/1700 South/1900 East/900 South to Guardsman Way instead of 2000 East/Parkway/2100 East. Service reduced to hourly during the day (I will blast this later). Restores service along 1700 East but the 15th/15th area still has no service.

Route 228: Will replace route 14 except will travel along 100 South instead of 400 South (why? wouldn't better service along South Temple made more sense since service was restored to 200 South). Also will run down Murray-Holladay Road to the Cottonwood Dead Mall. Once again will have hourly mid day service.

Route 209: Two changes: will use South Temple instead of 200 South to replace Route 220, will also use Winchester to the 6200 South TRAX station (so 900 East south of Winchester loses service because can't have duplication with revived Fort Union Blvd route). I bet UTA didn't even think about the fact that this restores Saturday service to a major mall that is under going major refurbishment (oh wait, of course not since UTA isn't good about serving major destinations properly that might actually build business with the proper marketing).

Route 207: Will replace the portion of existing route 10 south of the Murray Central TRAX station along Vine, 5600 South, and Fashion Blvd instead of using 5900 South/State. But since UTA made this change they of course cut service to hourly to teach people not to complain about their change ideas!

Route 217: Good service cut back from traveling all the way to 5400 South and instead will terminate at SLCC. Once again another major shopping and entrainment destination looses Saturday bus service.

Route 218: Gives southern part of Redwood direct service to SLCC. However Southtowne Mall and Redwood Shopping Centers loose Saturday service (of course Southtowne is essentially without transit service now except for the 811).

Route 519 and 520: Minor change in downtown routing that won't take effect immediatly because of City Creek construction.

Route 500: Will use 400 South and Main Street instead of 200 South and State street on portion of route.

Routes 517 and 522: The Crackheads are at it again. Since there was an uproar over loosing Route 26, UTA is getting even by creating a convulted route system. Route 517 will run peak hours in one way and back in the pm. During those times the 522 will not run the same direction even though it serves Redwood Road which is a good distance from 2200 West. This once again shows how UTA just does not make riding their system easy for their customers.

Route 313: Once of those Fast Buses that are a waste of capital assets. Instead of traveling directly down Union Park Ave to I-215 will diviate to service the Park and Ride lot on 6600 South. Now if only the replacement for the 32 as many stops as this route.

Route 307: Replaces route 32, no changes but where are the limited stops going to be? Are you going to screw the many people who board along Van Winkle like several people I know? Inquiring mines want to know.

Route 240: A couple of trips added because of heavy ridership, plus will exit I-15 at 500 South/600 South instead of the 400 South HOV exit.

Route 35: Route will service UTA like existing route 37. Ok, its fine to make your customers walk great distances to a bus, but your drivers can't walk a couple of blocks or take the 39? What a bunch of bull.

Route 227: Will service Welfare Square, what a concept.

Route 232: Will use California instead of 1700 South due to restoration of service along 4800 West. Once again UTA is cutting service to hourly.

Route 518: Well heres a concept, instead of having the bus run empty dead heading one way, the route will run "live" back to starting point.

Route 248: I mentioned when I rode the 48 route it seemed to have good ridership despite it being a new route. Well, it looks like UTA will keep the route but to show it really doesn't want the route it will end at 5400 South instead of 6200 South loosing service to the Cougar Shopping Center that seemed to create many trips.

Route 348: Route will use 9000 South instead of Old Bingham Highway which is now closed off. Is this the new service the one Board of Rubber Stamping was talking about creating new service? It sure doesn't seem to be creating a great deal of new service.

Route 356: One of those great new Fast Buses will have minor reroutes in the 6200 South/5600 South area and in downtown. Service slashed in half from 4 trips to 2 trips.

Route 551: Restores service to International Center but only 4 trips AM and 4 trips PM.

Route 236: Will service the business park west of Bangerter Highway north of 2100 South.

Wood Cross Routes: Will not be revamp just new numbers with some minor changes. So who is politcally connected here?

Route 471: Replaces route 71 which was to be killed.

Route 72: Reinstated by the good graces of UTA. Of course to get even service will be cut to hourly.

Route 78: Extended from 4000 West to 4800 West.

Route 389: Service cut from 4 trips per day to 2. Minor reroute leaving Judge High School.

Route 90: Extended to 4800 West to interline with route 78.

Route 94: Instead of being peak hours only, UTA will make this Salt Lake County's first Flex Route. This concept has the bus diviating from its route to service the neighborhood. This will restore full time weekday bus service to the route. Too bad UTA doesn't have decent buses to use on this type of route unless they plan to use Flextrans buses.

Thats what UTA changed from the orginal plan.

Now the hourly crap: UTA even admitted a few years ago that hourly service doesn't work. Optional Customers will not be attracted to a service that runs this infrequently. By running a bus every hour they are killing all the potential that route has. They plan to run these buses every hour and tell you next year, oh well there not working, we are going to kill them off.